I was approached by my client, Amanda Timchak, about participating in a fundraising event for City Harvest, a nonprofit organization she serves by sitting on their Leadership Council. While I had a good idea about the organization’s mission, I didn’t realize the magnitude of their efforts. I learned that City Harvest works with all segments of the NYC food industry including local restaurants, manufacturers, farms, corporate cafeterias and grocers, in addition to its local food drives and drop-off points, which they do in order to collect millions of pounds of food for the City’s hungry men, women and children. They have been tirelessly serving New York City for three decades; delivering food to nearly 600 community food programs and helping feed millions of New Yorkers that face hunger each year.
Some interesting facts about giving:
- $36 will help feed 20 children for a whole week
- $56 will rescue 224 pounds of food
- $83 will help feed a senior for nearly a year
- $135 will help feed 17 New Yorkers for a full month
This particular event, A Mid-Winter Escape, which I was asked to participate, is now in its second year.After learning more about all the great work City Harvest did, I spoke to our CEO, Shaun Osher about a possible sponsorship. He, like me, recognizes the severity of this ongoing and important issue, especially given the alarmingly high number of New Yorkers who go hungry each year. The latest statistic reported that more than three million citizens struggle to afford food. It took little-to-no convincing to get Shaun on board and happily agree for CORE to participate as a corporate sponsor of this fantastic event.
The event, held on Tuesday, March 5th in the ultra-chic space, Apella, delivered enticing food, drinks and live music all for a worthy cause. Anchored by several open bars, the room was strategically setup with food stations throughout the space, catered by some of Manhattan’s best restaurants including Toloache, Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, Delicatessen, Hill Country Chicken, El Rey, La Palapa, Gran Electrica and Momofuku Milk Bar. There were also servers passing around trays of delectable “Mexican-themed” bites such as pulled pork sliders, carne codia en limon, chilled avocado soup with peekytoe crab salad, guacamole de aguacate mexicano and dulce de leche cake truffles.
What made this evening more special was enjoying it with my CORE colleagues Emily Beare, Reba Miller, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Maggie Kent, Elizabeth Beare, and Lawrence Treglia. It was a perfect opportunity to unwind outside of an office environment and enjoy each other’s company over fare and libations, while taking in some live music courtesy of Nine Days. We all had a great time and agreed that this is certainly an affair worth attending next year.
While we had a chance to let loose and have a great time among a room full of fellow New Yorkers, it is worth noting the actual reason we all came together. I just heard from Amanda this morning that the Mid-Winter Escape event raised just over $80,000 which will provide over 331,000 meals to hungry New Yorkers. We at CORE were excited to hear this incredible news.
If you missed this event, there are several other City Harvest events throughout the year. And beyond these special events, there are a number of ways you can help which range from a small donation to volunteering. CORE was proud to sponsor this wonderful evening and hopes that we will soon find some resolve, through organizations like City Harvest, to this growing epidemic.